Tired of wandering around the world of Skyrim killing dragons and filling houses with cabbage all by yourself? You won't have to stay lonely for long, as Zenimax Media has announced The Elder Scrolls Online, which will take the franchise in a massively multiplayer direction for the first time, starting in 2013.

Game Informer managed to snag the exclusive reveal of the PC and Macintosh game, which will be featured in the magazine's June issue. The game will reportedly take place "a millennium before the events of Skyrim," and will feature three warring player factions that can quest alone or in groups and engage in player-vs-player combat. The magazine promises more details will be slowly dripped out through trailers, screenshots and interviews with the team behind the game in the coming weeks.

The new MMO will be developed by Zenimax Online Studios, founded back in 2007 under the direction of Matt Firor, a Mythic Entertainment veteran known for his work on Dark Age of Camelot. The Maryland-based studio has yet to release a game, but last year announced it was looking to hire hundreds of people for an Ireland-based customer support center.

"It will be extremely rewarding finally to unveil what we have been developing the last several years," Firor told Game Informer. "The entire team is committed to creating the best MMO ever made—and one that is worthy of The Elder Scrolls franchise."

Kyle Orland
Kyle is the Senior Gaming Editor at Ars Technica, specializing in video game hardware and software. He has journalism and computer science degrees from University of Maryland. He is based in the Washington, DC area. Emailkyle.orland@arstechnica.com//Twitter@KyleOrl